As Oscar-nominated actor Viggo Mortensen does the media rounds, attempting to claim another nomination for his work in the upcoming film “Green Book,” he can’t help but be asked his thoughts about the upcoming Amazon adaptation of “Lord of the Rings.”
For those that don’t know, Amazon is spending approximately $1 billion to bring Tolkien’s iconic series to its streaming service. Mortensen starred as Aragorn in the most recent adaptations of the novels, Peter Jackson’s trilogy. So, when he recently was interviewed by Collider, Mortensen was asked what his advice would be to actors that are signing up for Amazon’s massive undertaking.
Mortensen’s advice is clear, saying, “I would say, not only read the book, you know, very thoroughly, that giant book of ‘Lord of the Rings,’ but you could read some of the Nordic sagas. You’ll get some clues there as to where Tolkien got his information. Like, ‘Sigurd the Dragon Slayer,’ and the ‘Volsunga’ saga. Read that.”
In addition to giving advice for new actors on how to prepare for the massive “Lord of the Rings” production, Mortensen also explained his unique preparation for his trilogy of films. You may not remember, but the actor was a last-minute addition to the film, replacing Stuart Townsend at the 11th hour to play the role of Aragorn.
He explains, “’Lord of the Rings’ was a case where I replaced an actor and they were already filming – not only filming, but they’d been rehearsing for months and learning all these skills they had to have for those movies – language skills, invented the Elvish, and swordplay, and horse riding, all this stuff. And I was kind of freaked out because I said yeah and I’m on the plane, on this 13-hour plane flight, and I’m looking at the book, which I had never read.”
Mortensen continued, “But as I started looking at it, I was like, ‘Well, there’s something.’ There’s always something that you can draw on. I had read or been read to as a kid, stories about Vikings and Nordic sagas and stuff, and there was something there that was familiar, but it was still – you know, fortunately when I started doing that shoot it was physical stuff, not dialogue. So it was like sword fighting, so I could get my feet wet with that before I actually had to start speaking. It’s not ideal, but it seemed – my son was really into me doing it, and he was 11 at the time, and that kind of pushed me over the edge to say, ‘Yeah, okay.’ And obviously I’m glad I did it. It opened a lot of doors for me, and we had a lot of fun making those three movies. But it’s not ideal.”
The actor will next be seen in “Green Book,” which opens on November 16.
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